performing

At the beginning of 2018 I set myself a very private, very unpublished goal to play a live gig before the end of March… or the end of June at the very latest. But you know how life is and when it got to the end of September I realized I probably wasn’t going to make my goal of the end of March… or the end of June… or possibly even the end of 2018. So I just shrugged my shoulders and got on with the things I needed to do, allowing that particular goal to gently slide into obscurity.

Then the most amazing thing happened.

Out of the blue I got a phone call. A lady by the name of Nadine Mckenzie, of the Unmute Dance Theatre based at Artscape, asked if I’d be willing to play a few songs at Artscape’s Inclusive Arts festival in December. and suddenly my goal of playing live during 2018 became a possibility once more.

Unmute Dance Theatre is a mixed ability group that showcases both disabled and able performers in the arts. The Inclusive Arts Festival is an annual event that takes place at Artscape in the week leading up to 3 December, which is International Day of the Disabled. The festival has a number of performances and shows giving profile to some of our great disabled performers and artists from South Africa and abroad.

The shows investigate how the arts can be enjoyed by persons with disabilities and how disabled performers can showcase their skill.

I was thrilled to be invited to collaborate with the Afro Jazz Trio and vocalist Ms Babalwa Makwetu as the closing act of the concert on Sunday, 2 December. It was an amazing experience standing behind a microphone with my guitar in my hands once more – I loved every single second of it!

As an aside, Not only is Babalwa an accomplished singer and performer in her own right, but she seems to have poetry and melody running through her veins. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to create new songs as quickly and easily as she does – I keep hoping that some of her creativity will rub off on me as I start to consider what my next musical plans are.

Which is, of course, the question I need to answer. Here today, I’m publicly setting a goal for myself to play a live gig in 2019 – and this time I’m going to try not to let the goalposts shift into obscurity like they did in 2018!

Huge thanks to photographer Chris Adlam for the amazing shots of Babalwa and myself on stage – I have so few photos of me playing guitar that these are a real gift!